I was listening to Jonathan and Brad on their ChooseFI podcast all about coding this week and found it really interesting. They were interviewing Ryan Carson from Treehouse, an online coding tuition course website, who considers coding to be a trade rather than a professional qualification achieved at college/University. TreeHouse originated from a desire to make coding education available and financially accessible to more people, and students can try it for free before committing to a course. One point made during the podcast was that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has predicted that there will be 1.4 million new jobs in tech in the US by 2020, and only 400,000 will be filled by college graduates, so presumably the positions will be taken by those who’ve either studied elsewhere or topped up their qualifications somewhere other than college.

Fingers crossed Little Fu#1 will benefit from a similar scenario in the UK after he found college and University wasn’t for him right now.

He attended our local grammar school and was planning to continue in the Sixth Form there to do A-levels. At the time he’d no idea of a career goal, or the path to it, so he chose subjects he’d enjoyed at GCSE. Things started well, but by Christmas, the sheer workload of A-levels started to take its toll, and, at the suggestion of school (who were very supportive) he dropped one of his four chosen A-levels.

For us as parents, though, this made us think deeply about whether he was doing the right thing at all. Continue reading →

Five Little FUs go crazy at Tarr Steps, Dulverton, Somerset ….A great place for a family walk

In my last post I posted a list of free educational apps and sites, but what about downtime?

As a family of eight going anywhere can end up costing the earth, but after listening to Brad & Jonathan on a ChooseFI podcast talking about the importance of making memories and reading this inspirational and fun post by My Son’s Father on frugal family activities like picnics, nature hikes and bike rides I decided to go one further and make a list of some of the best free places (mostly indoor) to visit in the UK. Fun can be free, too, right?

It’s not an exhaustive list and I expect to add to it, but please send me any of your favourite places to visit that won’t ruin the path to FIRE and I’ll add them to the list.

In my last post I mentioned how a National Curriculum can’t ever hope to keep up with the current rapid advances in technology, the workplace (AND LIFE!)

Left to their own ‘devices’ (no pun intended 🙂 ) the Little FUs will spend 24 hours a day plugged into one type or another, so it’s only natural to look to computer/tablet-based apps and websites for learning, too.

As life has gravitated online even we as adults waste while away many a rainy afternoon clicking from one interesting YouTube video to another, and children can whizz through a whole year’s worth of science videos in a couple of hours in just the same way.

But online learning needn’t be expensive. It needn’t cost anything, in fact.

The sites and links I’ve listed below are free to access and we have no affiliation or link with any of the companies or websites mentioned – they’re merely a collection of things we use and find useful, or have had recommended to us. Continue reading →

From what I hear and read, people of the FIRE community are really keen to not just retire early or become financially independent, but to buy back time. The freedom created when you no longer need to work means you’ve the time to enjoy what makes you happy. Continue reading →

In my last post, I mentioned the other Great Leap we’d taken in our lives lately. It’s nothing wildly exciting, but it is a bit different to the norm and it could be hugely relevant to FI-focused parents. Continue reading →